Harry Redknapp may not be going to the European Championship with England but he will still have his say on their performances. The Tottenham manager has agreed to be a pundit for the BBC during its coverage of this summer's tournament in Poland and Ukraine. The appointment means he may be asked to criticise Roy Hodgson's management of England after he secured the job ahead of Redknapp, who was considered favourite for the role.

Redknapp upset Hodgson's predecessor, Fabio Capello, in 2008 when working as a pundit for Setanta during England's game with the Czech Republic. Redknapp said the Italian was "killing" Steven Gerrard by playing him on the left wing. "We have one of the finest midfielders in Steven Gerrard, he plays for Liverpool and he is like Roy of the Rovers. He shoots, he scores, he tackles. He is not a left midfielder. It is unbelievable. He has to be in the centre. We are killing Gerrard," he said.

Relations were further strained when Redknapp described Capello's selection of Ledley King as "mad" and "ridiculous" for a World Cup qualifier against Ukraine in 2009.

The Tottenham manager acted as a pundit during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa when the corporation was based in Cape Town, and regarding his agreement to once more work for the corporation, Redknapp said: "I'm looking forward to working with the BBC team again." The BBC has decided to have its base studio at Media City in Salford Quays rather than in one of the host countries. It is understood that the motivation for this is, in part, to cut costs, though Philip Bernie, the head of BBC TV sport, said "we will consider our options" as the tournament progresses. If England reach, say, the quarter-finals the corporation could then move its base operation to Poland and Ukraine.

Part of the reasoning for the decision is also because of the difficulty of finding an iconic location that represents a competition being held across thousands of miles in two countries, with the BBC pointing out that they will have an on-the-ground reporting team, led by Jake Humphrey, throughout the tournament.

Alan Hansen, Alan Shearer and Lee Dixon head the Salford-based team, while Gabby Logan will report from the England camp, and Bernie said: "We are really looking forward to our top team covering the European Championship. We have an excellent lineup of talent to present and comment on all the action and hope to see England progressing as far as possible, with the BBC showing all their knockout matches live."